Tortured Planet v9 (scmrtf_TorturedPlanet-v9.wad)

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Yeah, I noticed that when I played it on different computers.

Anyway, I was playing it on 1280x800 and FSZ still crashed. Granted, I have a pretty slow processor; I'm hoping to upgrade it soon. I'm not going to rate this yet in hopes that the next version will boost it from a 5/5 to a 6/5. =)

Nice loop.

Nice backgrounds.

I never knew O_MAP18M existed until I played this. I originally thought it was a custom music, but when I looked in the wad, i thought differently.
 
I really, really disliked this.

The first Zone was nothing more than extremely basic platforming, where there's no real hazards resulting in pretty much no difficulty whatsoever. There's a huge amount of Rings here, to the point it's just hilarious.
In the second Act, if you fall off through the canopy, you can end up in the water because of bad luck alone, then wander around a big pit of water, find a Spring, and end up going backwards.

The second Zone was some more really basic platforming, and most of the rooms, were pretty empty (though, the beginning was overly cramped).
In the first Act, there's practically no hazards at all besides the conveyor belt at the very end, which is very easy to avoid.
The second Act boiled down to running from flat hallway to flat hallway, searching for the Spring or whatever that takes you to the next path. There was one room where it opened up a bit which was really annoying, because there's no sense of direction and I wound up going in circles for a while.

Drowned Downtown incredibly frustrated me. The water was too thick and dark, making it hard to see anything. The level was mostly running through mazes where each texture is practically the same, and then probably taking the wrong path and having to go back where you started.
The scenery was absolutely terrible, and the Gargoyle puzzles were extremely messy: Pushing them is annoying enough to do, but then you have to put them in specific areas. The one with the pillars was terrible, and so was the one with the boxes. There's no real signal, and they were a giant chore to do, made even worse by the fact that it's underwater.
The waterslides added almost no gameplay at all (I only jumped once and didn't touch anything at all during the rest) except for the one with the branching paths, and it was simply timing a few basic jumps or else you're forced to go either to the beginning of the maze or to some other equally-dull area.
Near the end of the second Act where the subway was, it resorted to button-mashing in a bland and empty room as Sonic.

Snowcap Nimbus had really basic platforming. The rope pulleys were all entirely skippable (besides only one). The inconsistency with the oil (whether it's quicksand or not) really annoyed me. The floor was too slippery and there's too many pillars in the hallways, so I'd frequently crash, stuck and frustrated.
The parts with quicksand were totally skippable because you can simply Thok your way past the entire thing. The rooms with the icy floors annoyed me because the weak areas weren't obvious or expected.
The mixing between the two themes looked really bad, and there was very little variety in textures and flats in each room, making it look even worse.

Gritty Columns, in both Acts, either had very basic running through hallways, or very basic crusher gimmicks which were very weak hazards and barely a threat. The use of quicksand made many areas skippable (especially the one at the start of the first Act with the elevators)
The Gargoyle puzzle was messy and I suggest you remove it.
The rising quicksand areas can be skipped easily by button mashing as Sonic.
The platforming with the crushers felt overused and uninteresting.
The area where the sand lowers to reveal the temple was really ugly-looking. Really, the only nice-looking part was somewhat near the end of the second Act, mostly because of the lights.

Fume Shaft. At first it was really bland walking (extremely empty and I just Thokked with no danger at all), and then it was really basic platforming with ridiculous visuals that totally wrecked the framerate.
I simply got too frustrated here and lost all my patience. I quit before finishing the first Act.

Overall, this was a terrible pack. It's either extremely boring, very repetitive, or really frustrating and annoying.
The scenery altogether was really horrible and texture variation is extremely needed. There's a terrible lack of Thing and Sector-based scenery as well.
The levels all felt really "same-y": Mostly, it's a bunch of dull hallways, one after the other, and a really un-notable gimmick.
This really needs a lot of work. Add Sector and Thing scenery, remove some of the ridiculous gimmicks and puzzles (Mazes? Dark-as-hell water? Repetitive crusher segments?), add more of a challenge, and cut down on the massive amount of hallways (really, the entire pack felt like a giant bunch of hallways).
I honestly didn't like a single bit of this pack and was frustrated and annoyed throughout the whole thing.

I haven't played SRB2 in several months, and when I finally decided to give it a shot, I played this. Not exactly a good thing.
The only thing "tortured" was me when I played through this.

0/10
 
Kyasarin, we know that you dislike everything that has only the tiniest flaws (not to say this level pack hasn't got any), but this is really not only basic platforming, no matter how often you say it.
 
Kyasarin, we know that you dislike everything that has only the tiniest flaws...
And I know you like to exaggerate points.

...but this is really not only basic platforming, no matter how often you say it.

I never said it was just basic platforming; I said it mainly consists of it.
There's quite a lot of pillar-hopping sections and areas which are just standard platforming.
There really didn't feel to be anything out-of-the-ordinary or interesting, and I just thought it was tedious and dull, even in the areas with gimmicks involved. The conveyor belt hazards were really easy, the crushers got pretty old after a while, and the icy floors simply got annoying.

Eh, opinions.
 
Eh, I think we should calm down a bit, and concentrate on what this thread is about, but whatever. I don't quite know what you except of an SRB2 level. For me, it is perfectly fine if a level has some basic platforming sections. A level can't really consist entirely of new, original and challenging gimmicks for the whole playing time and still be several minutes long. I myself am perfectly fine with some basic platforming. You also said you liked Oceanic Cove, and that really only consisted of basic platforming for ten minutes.

I think your dislike for this level pack is more rooted in your dislike for this game than anything else. A score of 0/10 means that something has absolutely no redeeming value whatsoever, and that this is the worst of the worst. I really doubt that this is what you want to say.

But hey, I respect your opinions.
 
In general, Kyasarin, I do like how you explain what you don't like about levels. That's a step in the right direction. But frankly, I'm getting kind of tired of your failure to see anything positive at all, and I'm not just talking about my pack. I'm talking about everyone's work.

I really think that you are spending so much time dwelling on what you don't like (and I'll grant that TP has some problems, a few of them major) that you don't spend any time at all looking for positive traits. I know that you always respond that there isn't anything about it that you like, but a rating of 0/10 is simply gratuitous. Plenty of other people, including people who on the whole didn't like my level, found at least some things they liked, and thought there was some redeeming value (including Mystic and plenty of other people who know what they're talking about).

By this point, I've seen the pattern of how you rate things, and I have to agree with SpiritCrusher here: it's not all the levels you hate, it's SRB2 in general. You've even said it yourself.

But the fact that you continue to play something you hate is something that absolutely confounds me. If SRB2 is an endless parade of torture for you, why do you bother with it?

I think I can answer that question: because there is something about the game that you like, and you don't really have a solid grip on what that something is. That means that if you tried harder, I think you could find redeeming value in these sorts of things.

Your constructive criticism, Kyasarin, is missing a fundamental element. Proper constructive criticism must be two-sided, praising positive things and condemning crap. If all that a person is hearing is that his levels are terrible and have no redeeming qualities, how can you expect that person to improve?

To imagine the difficulty here, think of constructive criticism with the ever-tired metaphor of the stubborn mule. The stubborn mule moves towards the carrot because it wants to be rewarded, and away from the stick because it does not want to be punished. This is how constructive criticism works, too...SRB2 level makers gradually stop doing the things that other players complain about, and do more of the things that other players praise them for. But when you try to motivate the stubborn mule, Kyasarin, you haven't got any carrot at all. You're just jabbing the mule repeatedly with a stick. And without any positive accomplishments to compare failure to, nobody could easily figure out what they should be doing.

Please think about what I've said. I'm not just complaining because you didn't like my level. I'm complaining because you never even try to like anything.
 
Remember me?[/offtopic]
Fume shaft zone 1 does have a low framerate (the lowest I got is 0) but there are some things good about the MOD like sunshine atoll zone but maybe that's just because I like beach levels...the other levels we're not too bad either. Like mystic said: "this was enjoyable"
 
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I have BIG news!

V1.0 is almost ready to roll. I'd say there's a reasonable chance it'll be out by the end of today. If not, it'll certainly be out by Monday evening. So get ready to see Tortured Planet in a way you've never seen it before!
 
Are you still planning to redo/fix some of the levels or even just fix issues that have been complained about such as lag issues or ridiculous rising sand speed after the next release?
 
Long answer, yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssss.

Okay, moving back to seriousness, Version 1.0 will not be the end of it. There's going to be a Version 2.0, and a Version 3.0 after that. I'll explain the details of what to expect in these future versions when I officially release V1.0...which should probably be within the hour.
 
I tried giving this another shot.

The first Zone still feels very empty and lonesome in parts, mainly in the outside areas and when you enter a deeply forested location.
The second Zone had some fun things to explore and I liked finding them. Not much else to say.
The underwater city level still frustrates me a bit. The Gargoyle puzzles still feel out-of-place and dangerously flow-breaking, and even on my second run the little mazes tripped me up.
The snow Zone still feels too bland and simple.
The desert Zone was overly easy; the quicksand eliminated a very big amount of the challenge, and the rest of the level was crusher segments, which really weren't too hard to dodge.
Fume Shaft Zone had some really annoying platforming, what with the slime falling on the player when it isn't expected, and the fan segment got on my nerves because of the loose controls and the fact that there's random little holes that would just cause you to fall. The "railway" segments were all overly wide and bland, while the cavernous areas tended to be overly cramped.
A lot of things in LGZ annoyed me: There was a large amount of Snailers placed that really annoyed me very much, as some of them were over pits and in somewhat large groups. The climbing segments felt like they were done too long and felt boring as a result. The area with the shrinking really confused me for a while and left me running in several circles before finding out where to go.
Space Walk Zone just really annoyed me. It's very slow-paced and it's the same falling-rock hazard again and again. The gravity flipping made the level confusing (especially at the beginning of Act 2). There's one point in Act 2 where you go into a tunnel (with the red floors and blue floor gimmick) which led me running in circles until I decided to skip the level entirely.
Alien Armageddon...ick. The beginning room with the rising/sinking rocks was ridiculously wide for no reason, and most other parts of the level were cramped with enemies that would cause cheap deaths. I got too annoyed with this Zone and quit in the middle of it.

Overall, on this second run, I enjoyed this pack more than I did before. A main problem is some annoying Thing placement, and the fact that most levels have a "same-y" feeling, and there's some pretty bad visuals. The later Zones really need some fine-tuning.
I found it more enjoyable than before, but it's still a bit below average. It has potential with the Zone ideas you have but they just don't feel as fleshed-out as they could be.

3.4/10

Keep in mind that I'm always a pretty hard person to please, so you shouldn't take this too seriously.
 
3.4/10

Keep in mind that I'm always a pretty hard person to please, so you shouldn't take this too seriously.
Don't worry. I adjust my reaction to your scores based on your high standards. I'm glad that you liked it a bit better the second time around.

I agree with you that many parts are repetitive. Much of what is in these levels is just "placeholder" stuff, which will be taken out when I can think of better gimmicks to add in their place.

Why does DD2 now begin 3/4 into the stage now? Is this a mistake?

YIKES! I was afraid I'd do that!

Okay...I'm putting up v1.1, which corrects the handful of bugs I've found, including that.
 
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Some more starting point issues:

CNZ2 starts near the way end, and I don't believe SWZ1 starts at the correct point either.

FSZ2's starting point is incorrect as well, though the stage is disabled by normal means so I guess that doesn't matter...
 
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